Today, the optional prompt suggested that we get inspired by an encyclopaedia in writing our poems. And since this is the very Encyclopaedia Vanitatum – the encyclopaedia of worthless, transient things – the prompt fit like a glove. And so today’s poem was written sub specie aeternitatis – considering timelessness.
Sub Specie Aeternitatis
Gromphadorhina portentosa
Dionaea muscipula
Achatina fulica
Asplenium nidus –
meaty names
that roll off the tongue
in heavy syllables.
They are older than you.
When this world comes to an end,
they will fossilise
more elegantly
than your bones,
sprawled awkwardly in the substrate.
Whoever then inherits the Earth
will weigh all these remains
against each other and,
studying the simple, ageless beauty
of an unfurled fern,
preserved in ash before maturity,
will find us wanting.
Encyclopaedia Vanitatum 